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Ghost Studies

Illuminating the Darkness. Field Guide to Haunted Graveyards. Not registered? Forgotten password Please enter your email address below and we'll send you a link to reset your password. Not you? Forgotten password? Forgotten password Use the form below to recover your username and password. New details will be emailed to you. Simply reserve online and pay at the counter when you collect. Available in shop from just two hours, subject to availability.

Your order is now being processed and we have sent a confirmation email to you at. This item can be requested from the shops shown below. Items would disappear, stacked items would fall over, and it was always cold—no matter how high we cranked the heating up. One of the women I worked with stayed late with the owner one night to do a stocktake. The next day she told me that halfway through the stocktake they had been overwhelmed by a rotting smell.

Apparently, they had searched, and searched for the source of this smell. They never did find it but that. A creepy video that takes us on an adventure! Ghost hunters trying to decifer what is going on in Leap Castle. Located in Coolderry, County Offaly, Ireland, this historical building has gained worldwide attention and has been featured on a number of TV catering to an audience with a fascination for the supernatural including Ghost Hunters.

But what is the history behind this infamous castle and what is at the root of its sinister reputation? Watch the video below, or click here.

Chilling Tales from Derbyshire

Click here to see the video, or just scroll down. A brand new encounter that placed one ex-veteran in the way of something evil in California. This may be one of those Black Eyed Kids encounters. See what you think… This happened while I was on vacation with my motorhome in California. We were settled in for the night when there was a knock on the side of the vehicle. Thinking it was just kids pranking us we ignored it.

The knock continued and became louder as it moved up and down the side of the vehicle. I got up, went outside and saw nothing. Turned to go back inside and came face to face with a young boy. It was dark outside, but I could tell it was a kid. Most of us have heard about the famous Enfield poltergeist; the most famous poltergeist case in England, but 25 years before this case began, there was the Runcorn poltergeist, which haunted the occupants of number 1 Byron Street for over two months.

This is the story of the Byron Street poltergeist. Click here, or scroll down to see the video. Then I looked at the second photo The object I saw was puzzling because in the photo shot seconds before A UFO apparently crashed into the pond leaving a hole two feet across, during the winter. Local residents believe there has been a cover-up.

He and the dogs had a bit of a shock when the cat turned out to be a skunk that sprayed the canines. Meanwhile, nurse Jackie Morgan stared in disbelief at a meerkat outside her conservatory window in South Wales. They are believed to have escaped from a nearby pet shop. The police were called in Sunderland after a woman found an inch, brown and bronze-coloured snake in her kitchen. African huntsman spiders turned up in boxes of bananas in Wick and Holsworthy. The corrugated crab was found in British waters in Cornwall for only the third time in a century,.

A three-metre long oarfish came ashore near Tynemouth, and a photographer snapped a dorsal fin swimming close to bathers in Cornwall. The organization has trigger cameras placed at three more locations. A small number are kept and bred in the UK as pets so I strongly suspect that it has escaped from a private collection.

Nick, Author at My Haunted Life Too

They are omnivorous and will eat almost anything. With the mild climate in Cornwall, this chap could easily survive in the wild. The authorities are stumped as to what animal could have caused such damage, remarking that they have never seen anything like it before. Even though the animal has left behind bite marks and scratches along with prints on the hood as big as tennis balls, no identification can be made.

It scares me I never heard anything. The eerie sounds are described as howls, screeching, moans and whoops. These noises have been heard near residences and by campers in their tents. Some folk think that there may be a Bigfoot in the area. It was also said to have a face covered with fur, and red. The figure suddenly stood up, taking two leaps forward and displaying a set of wings similar to those of a bat.

Other witnesses in the area claims to have heard its screams. After a search the authorities could find no trace of the creature. I know it sounds fanciful but over the past years, dogs get killed or decapitated and people report feeling watched, having goats stolen or seeing some tall hairy thing in the days beforehand. They have taken 20, head of livestock with them. Samples have been sent to Xinjiang Agricultural University. But now the worms are creeping around, and they even come into my house. I have to sweep them out several times an hour. Lenticular clouds are usually caused by condensing moisture in the air on the lea-side of mountain ranges.

A series of lens-shaped clouds stack one on top of the other to create a beautiful formation. Caught in the light of a rising or setting sun, they can indeed look unearthly but it would be hard to see how anyone could genuinely mistake a lenticular cloud for an alien spaceship, drifting, rather than zipping, through the sky. It had drifted sedately over from Ireland, said the Met Office, and nobody except the Telegraph reported it as anything other than, well, a cloud.

Some will even sleep with a script underneath a pillow in the belief that this will help them to memorise their lines. These superstitions are probably fuelled by the theatres in which they work, for these buildings are some of the most haunted places in the country. This is hardly surprising when you consider that theatres are hives of emotion sparked by the drama which unfolds on their stages — and sometimes in the wings.

In during the Bath Festival the lights dimmed mysteriously and a prop clock on stage suddenly started chiming even though the mechanism had been removed. Many members of the audience have seen her wearing an oldfashioned dress and white gloves. A lady in an adjoining box turned round and saw her clearly but by the time she had alerted her companion, the ghost had vanished.

He ran to the circle but she had vanished, leaving only the smell of jasmine behind her. The play was The Dame of Sark and later the cast was told they had a winner on their hands as the ghost only watched R. Needless to say the play moved to the West End and enjoyed a lengthy run. Back in Reg Maddox, the producer of the annual pantomime, was lighting one of the highlights of the production, the Butterfly Ballet, when he collapsed and died.

Since then a tortoiseshell butterfly has appeared on stage during many productions and to preserve the luck, the Butterfly Ballet backdrop has never been removed from its place above the stage. In full view of a packed theatre he held the butterfly in his hands and released it into the wings, telling the audience that he would explain everything at the end of the performance, which he did. During the successful run of the show, the butterfly made further appearances backstage and in other parts of the theatre.

Sometimes a ghost may not confine itself to a theatre. Terriss had befriended Prince and even found him work, but Prince was mentally unstable and stabbed his benefactor. Terriss staggered into the theatre and died in the arms of his leading lady, Jessie Milward. The actor had a habit of tapping on dressing room doors as he passed and following his death the sounds have continued.

On another occasion furniture was seen to move in. Terriss has not only made his presence felt at the Adelphi but has also been seen at the Covent Garden Underground station. Jack Hayden, a ticket collector, first saw him one Christmas Eve and then began to have regular sightings of the ghost. Suddenly, London Transport began to receive transfer requests from a number of staff at the station and a four-page report was sent to its executive.

When this proved to be impossible they had to settle for the more modest surroundings of the Wimbledon Theatre. During the shoot a member of the crew saw a man in one of the boxes watching the filming. He thought nothing more about this until the following day when he saw the man again. As the auditorium was supposed to be clear, he decided to have a word with him, but by the time he reached the box the stranger had gone. Evidently Mr Mullholand always kept an eye on what he considered to be his theatre and he always checked up on anything that might be considered out of the ordinary. Its most famous phantom is the Man in Grey who only appears in daytime.

W J McQueen Pope was a noted critic and theatre historian who used to conduct guided tours of the theatre and on many occasions he and his guests saw a man of medium height wearing a three-cornered hat and a grey cloak. Through the years members of the theatre staff have also witnessed the ghost and one member of the audience who saw him during a matinee asked an attendant if he was part of the show.

No one knows who the ghost really R. Tragically, Sid James died on stage here in the true sense and fellow comic Les Dawson may be among those who have seen his ghost in the dressing room. An offer was made to exorcise the ghost but the staff had grown quite fond of him and objected — his appearance is considered a sign of good luck to the resident show.

Other phantoms haunting the theatre include Charles Macklin, who in had a violent quarrel with another actor, Thomas Hallam, and killed him. Macklin still prowls the corridors of the theatre. But one ghost has proved to be extremely helpful to actors. During the long run of Oklahoma! Then one night, while playing a scene with two other actors, she felt a tug on her dress followed by the pressure of two hands on her shoulders guiding her to another position downstage.

That night she got her laughs. As a newcomer she was extremely nervous, but then she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder. The nerves vanished and she got the part. No one can say for certain who the ghostly helper was but many believe him to be the great clown Joseph Grimaldi, who was known for his encouragement of young artists. Other theatres were not so kind to performers. In the great days of provincial variety, the Empire in Sunderland had. Some actors have reported strange happenings there and a cleaner.

Before a note had been played Arthur collapsed and was taken to his dressing room where he died. The theatre was demolished and replaced by a large building called Tivoli House. On one of its floors staff claimed to have seen the ghost of Old Mother Riley which seems quite appropriate as it was the floor which housed the local branch of an organisation which Arthur hated, the Inland Revenue. During the pantomime season of Les Dawson was given the same dressing room and one night cast members noticed that he was visibly shaking before his first entrance.

The comedian refused to talk about what he had just seen but he vowed later that he would never to return to the Empire, and he never did. That night the cast, having failed to coax the young man back, performed without him. The young woman, who always dresses in white, is said to be the spectre of Molly Moselle, the stage manager of The Dancing Years, who vanished on the afternoon of January 14, Despite a nationwide search, she was never seen again. Knowing that no one should be there at that time, the barmaid walked to the upper circle, but when she arrived it was empty.

One theatre which certainly values its resident phantoms lies at the end of a Norfolk pier. In Richard Lawson, manager of the Pavilion Theatre in Cromer, was so worried about upsetting its ghosts with proposed renovations that he brought in a medium, David Wharmby, to attempt to contact them. The theatre and its pier would certainly seem to be home to some varied spirits. A number of actors claimed to have seen the figure of Dick Condon, the impresario who instigated the return of summer shows to the stage.

Ghostly figures in ragged clothes have also appeared on the pier itself and are thought to be the inhabitants of the town of Shipden which was swept into the sea in not far from where the structure now stands. A phantom lifeboat crew, whose station used to be on the pier, have been seen as well. In his investigations David Wharmby also identified the spirit of a Victorian chorus girl, a circus midget and a mysterious man and woman.

The management of the Pavilion Theatre regards the ghosts as its invisible guests — as should we, for they add to the mystery and magic of theatre itself. Some of the strangest beings ever imagined are to be found in native Australian folk belief. During the Dreamtime all the animals existed in human form, as kangaroo-men, emu-men, crocodilemen etc, and co-existed alongside true men. However, there also existed other beings, even more bizarre and nightmarish than animal men.

It is natural to presume that these ancient spirit entities are completely imaginary. But if the testimony of modern-day native Australians,. The Tasmanian wolf, for example, bore a striking outward resemblance to the wholly unrelated wolves and other wild dogs of Europe,. Many represent the dreaded Mimi. Moreover, whereas they were once friendly to humans, nowadays the mimi are firmly believed by the aboriginals to be very dangerous, eager to kill and eat any humans that they can catch.

Happily, however, they can be avoided during windy weather because the mimi are so thin that even a gust of wind is sufficient to snap their fragile twig-like necks, and so they remain hidden during such weather. Ancient rock paintings depicting mimi exist, which, interestingly, modern-day aboriginals claim were painted not by their ancestors but by the mimi themselves. Asia and the Americas. Its tiny sharpmuzzled marsupial mice are extremely reminiscent of shrews, and its marsupial mole is scarcely distinguishable from true moles found outside Australia. Just as Europe and North America, for instance, are deemed traditional homelands of gnomes, dwarfs, goblins and other diminutive masculine humanoid entities, so too are many parts of Australia.

Particularly elusive are the nyols,. They are fond of stealing things from unwary humans, and leading hunters astray. And in Queensland, the hirsute red-skinned dinderi are even said to have kidnapped humans and kept them captive in their mountain caves for years at a time. So too do the bitarr, long spoken of by the Gumbangirr people, again in New South Wales. Nor should we forget the ningaui,. The Tiwi people even claim that the ningaui originally assisted them in their earliest Kulama ceremonies — initiation rites into religious cults.

Of course, it would be easy to dismiss such stories and beliefs entirely as simple native folklore — were it not for the somewhat disquieting but fascinating fact that unidentified beings closely matching these descriptions have also been reported in Australia by Western-originating eyewitnesses, and in modern times. Some investigators claim that there are undiscovered tribes of pygmies inhabiting remote regions of Australia, such as the Cairns rainforest, even smaller than the short-statured tribes already known to have once existed there.

Moreover, fellow Queensland investigator Grahame Walsh has long been on the prowl through the rugged bush terrain around Carnarvon Gorge in search of junjuddis — very small ape-like entities only 1 m or so tall, with hairy humanoid bodies but long ape-like arms, and a somewhat odiferous presence. A former Carnarvon National Parks and Wildlife officer, Walsh has no doubt that these weird mini-beings are real, and has even encountered their tracks, preserved by him afterwards as plaster casts — which he likens to the footprints that a 5-year-old child would make.

During the s, there was a spate of junjuddi sightings, but fewer in recent times, because people rarely traverse the wildernesses nowadays. Similar pygmies are claimed to exist in the mountains of Arnhem Land north of the Roper River in the Northern Territory, where they are called the burgingin. Referred to by the Wiradjuri people of New South Wales as mirrii dogs or the mirriuula, these decidedly paranormal creatures are said to resemble large hairy black dogs, with pointed ears, and with very big red eyes like saucers but placed at the sides of their heads like those of fishes rather than at the front like those of real dogs.

Mirrii are often seen emerging from rivers, large pools, or other expanses of water, and sometimes attempt to lure humans into their aquatic domain, whereupon their victims are swiftly drowned. Not surprisingly, the people warn their children to beware of these dangerous entities, although sometimes a mirrii is simply inquisitive rather than malevolent, following someone home before disappearing — which brings us to the most remarkable aspect of mirrii behaviour. Namely, their ability to change size. In his fascinating book, You Kids Count Your Shadows , documenting the lore of the Wiradjuri, Frank Povah included the testimony of native eyewitnesses who claim to have witnessed these magical creatures.

According to their accounts, a mirrii usually appears small at first, no bigger than a terrier, but the longer that it is stared at, the bigger it grows — until it soon attains the size of a calf or pony, after which it will abruptly vanish completely in full view of its astonished observer. During the early s, Loveland in Ohio, USA, attracted fleeting fame as the provenance of some sightings by bemused police officers of a truly bizarre being referred to ever. TARSIER: This sinister-looking but harmless little creature may be the inspiration for the goblinesque Yara-ma-yhawho, half-remembered from far distant times before any people came to populate Australia.

Known to them as the potkoorok, this veritable man-frog is described as a small humanoid being but with huge webbed feet, long mobile fingers, and a wet pear-shaped body. Totally inoffensive and extremely shy, it endeavours at all times to keep well hidden from humans in deep pools and rivers, so is only rarely and briefly spied.

Equally elusive, but far from inoffensive, is the dreaded yara-ma-yhawho. Although at first sight it may well resemble nothing more than a small, wizened, toothless old man sitting in a fig tree, anyone rash enough to draw nearer for a closer look will soon discover their mistake — to their cost. Its hair and skin are red, its eyes are enormous, and — most alarming of all — there are suckers at the ends of its long fingers and toes, through which it sucks the blood of any hapless human that it can leap down upon.

But even that is not the worst that will happen to its victim. Like a snake, the yara-ma-yha-who can unhinge its jaws, until they gape so widely that they can swallow its human prey whole, and its stomach can distend to an obscene size, enabling it to swallow its prey entirely. But that is still not the end. Instead of allowing its prey to be digested within its stomach, the foul yarama-yha-who repeatedly regurgitates and reswallows him, with its prey remaining whole but smaller and.

As revealed all too clearly in these paintings, what makes the quinkin stand out so readily from all other stick men — and certainly explains why they are deemed to be personifications of human lust — is the excessively large size and often grotesque shape of their male genitalia. Clearly, as far as the quinkin are concerned, size really does matter! There is no species of Australian animal even remotely similar in appearance to the yara-mayha-who, so it was traditionally discounted an entirely fictitious Dreamtime monster.

Diminutive, hairy, with huge globular eyes, and, most striking of all, suckers at the tips of its fingers, all features likening it to the yara-ma-yha-who, this nocturnal, tree-climbing primate is completely harmless and reclusive. Nevertheless, it is more than sufficiently eerie and goblinesque in appearance to have conceivably inspired ancestral aboriginal belief in the vampiric yara-ma-yha-who.

According to Greek mythology, anyone who stared into the eyes of Medusa instantly turned to stone. Similarly, those who catch the gaze of Old Red-Eye are also frozen, but in quite a different manner. Old Red-Eye is often said to be quite amorphous in appearance, and can appear anywhere at any time, but sometimes adopts a vaguely PHALLIC: The prodigiously endowed Quinkin is a spirit that represents excessive human lust. Should a human observer look into them, even for just a moment, he is instantly mesmerised, and remains in this state for however long Old Red-Eye chooses, because time stands still for its victim.

Judging from Old Red-Eye, the yara-ma-yha-who, and even the mirrii dogs, much the same may be said for its paranormal entities too! Karl P N Shuker PhD is a zoologist and expert in cryptozoology, animal mythology and wildlife anomalies. His new website is www. My own UFO sighting is nothing too extraordinary but it is something that still puzzles me to this day. I finished work at around 9. It was a beautiful July evening, with the red glow of the summer sunshine filling the darkening sky. As soon as I turned my car right onto the A, I could see a large bright light in the evening sky that I knew should not be there.

They were visible in the sky above the Leeds suburb of Middleton, which can be seen on the hill in the distance. I kept a close eye on this bright light and about half way home pulled over in a lay-by to view it again. I lined it up with a lamppost and could see that it appeared to be stationary. I got out of the car and found my vantage point now gave me an excellent view of the surrounding area. I could see all of the city of Leeds in the valley below, and on a hill to the right the Leeds suburb of Middleton.

The light was now visible as two lights side-by-side. They were just above Middleton and were a pearly-white colour. I watched these lights for a while until, to my amazement, they vanished. They did not move up or down or left. I stayed there for a minute or two looking round but did not see them again. I grabbed my binoculars and camera and returned to my vantage point in the hope of seeing them again but in vain. The next day I was soon to learn that I was not the only one to observe these strange lights.

All of my colleagues at work knew of my interest in UFOs and as soon I clocked on at 2 pm, two of them, who used the same route home as me, approached me to ask me about them. In the ensuing weeks and months my colleague Mark Birdsall and I conducted a full investigation into this incident. We interviewed or took statements from many other witnesses. Fir example, at 9. Mrs Davey saw what she thought was a bright star. We all looked and dismissed it as not being a star because of the brightness.

At this time our son came down from his bedroom and said he was watching two bright lights in the sky. We all went outside with binoculars and telescope and discovered there were two lights, stationary and very bright. Using binoculars and telescope, it did not appear to have any shape. Suddenly the lights disappeared Saw these two, very bright large lights. They were too low for stars.

I called my wife to come and see the lights and went and picked up my binoculars. It was a warm, clear night, just getting dusk. They were like nothing I ever seen before. Too low for aircraft. It was not a helipcopter. The small and large light seemed to merge and pulsate with coloured lights and then — the most astounding thing happened — the lights vanished as though someone had turned a switch off, and the sky was empty. It was As part of our investigation, Mark Birdsall and I tried to discover if there was any kind of aircraft that might have accounted for the lights.

Unfortunately, we. May I point out that we were not flying on that night — hence the ATC Tower and radar would not have been manned. In any event, I suspect most people who are closely involved with aviation tend to concentrate their energies upon identified objects.

May I urge you to send any further enquiries direct to the Ministry of Defence. Exley at RAF Finningley, in South Yorkshire, confirmed they were not flying that evening and had not received any reports themselves. The time was Humberside Police provided us with another report from a Clare Branton, who had witnessed the exact same thing. Despite an extensive search, no civilian or military aircraft or helicopters could be found to be flying in these locations on the night of July 23, Other researchers speculated that the UFO was some form of earthlight a type of light allegedly produced around the time of earth tremors but again, this is just a theory, nothing more.

I for one have no idea what these lights were. Mark Birdsall and I tried very hard to find a conventional, logical explanation for them but we never did. During my 30 years of involvement with UFO research and investigation this is the one and only time I can honestly say that I witnessed something that I could not explain. He can be contacted via his web site at: www. The Daemon inside us all Are we literally in two minds?

The day had been very quiet, and he was looking forward to a cool beer back at his base. However, as the armoured vehicle approached a bend in the road he felt a prickly and ominous feeling, a sense of impending danger. And then it happened. He immediately swung his machine gun to the left, but as he did so, he found himself being pulled quite violently and inexplicably forward. The power of the push was such that the next thing he knew, he was hanging: caught in the camouflage webbing at the side of the armoured vehicle. Something had pushed him out from behind the machine gun and away from the gunfire.

When he recovered himself, he climbed back into his seat. The ambush was over and a few of his comrades had been wounded. His only injury was a broken thumb, caused by his fall. But there were three bullet holes in the back of his seat — the bullets would have hit him in the throat, the chest and his groin, and any of the three could have been fatal.

All three would have killed him instantly. What actually happened on that hot day 40 years ago is of crucial importance to our understanding of not only human consciousness but also the very nature of reality itself. Something within him, but not part of him, knew that Alan faced peril.

Not only that, but in its desperation to help him, this disincarnate intelligence had shouted a warning to him. In a final attempt to save his life, the entity physically pushed Alan out of the line of fire and into the comparative safety of the camouflage webbing. How can this be? Who or what was this being, and how did it know the future? In my latest book, The Daemon: An Introduction to Your Extraordinary Secret Self, I present evidence for a secret, a secret that has been carried down from ancient times in various esoteric traditions, a secret that may even by the basis of the Holy Grail legend.

And what is this secret? Just this — that all conscious beings consist of not one but two semi-independent entities, one of which knows what will happen in the future. In this article I wish to present the evidence for such an idea. I will firstly review the philosophical, historical and theological background to such a belief and then I will apply some astonishing evidence from modern neurology and consciousness studies that may show that such a belief may, in fact, be true.

Daemon and Eidolon This concept of human conscious duality is not a modern one; belief in such an idea goes back as far as written language and probably even further. However, it was the ancient Greeks who refined this into a coherent philosophy. For the Greeks human duality was reflected in two beings; a lower, everyday self called an Eidolon and an immortal, transcendental being they called a Daemon.

Greeks to describe an image or statue of a god. It therefore comes as no surprise that the word Eidolon became associated with this lower nature of man. This lower nature was considered mortal and limited in its ability to perceive the real nature of reality. Development and demonisaton The idea of this Daemon-Eidolon duality was to fascinate the ancient Greeks and Romans and soon a whole philosophy of universal structure was to be built around this relationship.

The earliest known writer on the subject was Empedocles. For him the Daemon, although semi-imprisoned in the body, is a divine being exiled from its rightful place among the gods. It exists independently of its lower self, or Eidolon, and has great knowledge and power. However, our knowledge of this interesting belief chiefly comes from the writings of Plato and his descriptions of the teachings of his master, Socrates. The Romans, as we know, were heavily influenced by Greek culture so it comes as no surprise that the idea of the Daemon became Latinised.

However, the Romans perceived this being as less of a god, more an inner or attendant spirit that sometimes gave humble man a touch of greatness. The Romans had an alternative word for this being: they called it the Genius. This being was considered to be immortal, with knowledge of the future life of its lower self, the everyday, and very mortal, Eidolon. The word Eidolon was originally used by the. Matter is part of the Darkness. As such there is this ongoing conflict within the human condition. Man is imprisoned in this body of darkness but a part of him retains memories of his divine origin.

The part of man rooted in the darkness equates to the Eidolon. This being is made of matter and will cease to be when the body dies. However, that part of him that retains the memory of who he really is — the Daemon — never dies. The concept of the Daemon-Eidolon may seem an obscure artefact of religion and mysticism but it has real relevance to 21st century psychology and neurology, too. His Daemon was very active in his life. Ever since his childhood Socrates had heard an inner voice that guided and advised him. Sometimes this voice would involve itself in really mundane things — such as advising its Eidolon to not go out on a particular day because it would rain later.

It was as if it knew the future, or at least the future of its own Eidolon. For many of the early Christians the idea of such a duality of spirit was a dangerous heresy, particularly as it clearly had Pagan roots. In order to deal with this, the early Church Fathers applied simple semantics.

They took the word Daemon and consistently applied it to designate a disincarnate spirit spawned. This group called themselves Gnostics — those who have secret knowledge, or gnosis. And what was this secret knowledge? Simply that the universe we live in is an illusion created by an evil God and that behind that illusion exists the real universe created by the real God. Gnostics believed that this duality of light and darkness was reflected within human consciousness. For them the Daemon was a spark that comes from the Light.

It was therefore part of the positive side. However, the human body was formed out of base matter, not light. There is something very curious about the brain of advanced animals. Indeed it is interesting to note that beneath these two hemispheres known as the cerebral cortex sits a third brain, a reminder of our fish and lizard ancestry.

But it is the hemispheres that are of particular interest. These two organs are virtually mirror images of each other. There are two of everything; two limbic systems, two temporal lobes, two amygdalas, the list goes on. The only exception is the mysterious pineal gland, long thought, because of its unique position, to be the location of the soul. Research into how the brain functions has shown that these two hemispheres control different sides of the body.

The right hemisphere is responsible for the left side and vice versa. This can be shown when a stroke damages one side of the brain. If the left is damaged, for example, the patient usually loses mobility to the right side of the body. In some cases of severe brain injury strange things have been observed.

It has been discovered that certain individuals can live normally even when one of the hemispheres is damaged or removed. Indeed, in the last 50 years or so surgery has advanced to such an extent that the body that holds the two hemispheres together, the corpus callosum, can be cut, removing the line of communication between the two hemispheres. They also end up with two independent centres of consciousness. The implication of this is mind-blowing: we have two independent beings sharing our perceptions.

It is generally the case that one side of the brain is dominant and one is passive. The dominant hemisphere usually, but not always, the left is rational, objective and unemotional. The non-dominant right. However, this does not on its own imply two foci of consciousness, just simply two aspects of the same consciousness. The two elements are simply seen as aspects of a unitary consciousness, with the left hemisphere being generally in control, with the occasional eruption of emotion from the right. But the reality is far more complex — and fascinating.

Usually the two hemispheres work in tandem: the left generating a constant stream of inner dialogue that gives us our sense of self, while the right hemisphere is still actively involved in all cognitive processes, working away in the background. Problems arise when the two fall out of phase. This realisation can be disturbing. The dominant hemisphere perceives its nondominant twin as an external presence, a being that is not self but other.

Persinger has even been able to reproduce the sensation under laboratory conditions. Persinger considers that the experience shows a linear progression. At its weakest the subject just feels that they are not alone — that there is something else in the room that he or she cannot see. However, at its strongest the subject perceives an objectively existing being of tangible reality, a being that has great emotional significance to him or her.

For some this may be perceived as an angel or even a god. This may be interpreted as telepathy or omnipotent knowledge. Cheating the ferryman? In my books I present powerful evidence suggesting that during the last few seconds of life we all split into the two entities I term the Daemon and the Eidolon. Up until this moment both entities have perceived themselves as a unitary being. The Daemon, suddenly discovering its true vocation, is aware that it is responsible for the experience called the past-life review.

It begins the review whilst at the same time manifesting itself as an image perceived by its Eidolon as a figure. The Daemon then starts the past-life review using the memory stores of the temporal lobes. Of course, to be a reported Near-Death Experience actual death does not take place. The subject lives to tell the tale. What happens in a Real-Death Experience is that the Daemon starts the review without the need to fast-forward.

The dying Eidolon, in the last few seconds of its life, falls out of time and relives again its whole life in a minuteby-minute 3D recreation of a life that is indistinguishable from the real thing. However, there is one major difference — this time the Daemon is not only selfaware but remembers what happened last time. In this way the Daemon reproduces exactly the role as described by The Gnostics, the Stoics and the Pagan sages. It becomes a guardian angel looking after the life of its lower self — exactly as described by Socrates.

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Could it be that most of us are living our lives in a three-dimensional illusion? If so, it would help to explain certain ongoing mysteries. Precognition suddenly does not defy scientific knowledge: it is simply a memory. And what about those weird hunches, synchronicities and intuitions that seem to regularly enter our consciousness? Could they be just messages from our own higher self — our Daemon? When the connection between these two hemispheres is cut, extraordinary effects take place.

One can scarcely scratch the surface of his galvanising new theory which not only seeks to answer the all-important question of What happens after we die? Tony proves something of a Renaissance man, able to pull facts out of the air on a breathtaking range of subjects pertinent to his evidence for the Daemon see preceding article. This is no mean feat considering these include disciplines as disparate as neurology, theology and particle physics. However, the real surprise is to discover he has no scientific training.

Tony lives in a village in Wirral, Merseyside, a few miles from where he was born, but he travelled about a bit before returning to his birthplace. Armed with a postgraduate diploma in Employee Relations and Management, he worked as a manager in a variety of sectors around the UK. In this way the Cheat The Ferryman theory found itself.